This past week it was time again for the annual Botany conference, hosted by the Botanical Society of America, American Society of Plant Taxonomists, American Fern Society, and many others. This year’s conference was held in beautiful Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The conference center was perched over the North Saskatchewan River, and the July weather was distinctly different at 53.5°N than at Gainesville’s 29.6°N…
The meeting started out, as always, with field trips on the first Saturday, and this year’s trip was led by Botychiologist-extraordinaire Don Farrar, from Iowa State University. We saw several beautiful species of Botrychium and Sceptridium, as well as large herds of bison at Elk Island National Park, an enclosed parkland that houses genetically-pure bison (they have not had cattle genes introduced, as apparently most other North American Bison have). The field trip was well attended (nearly 50 people!) and photos of some of the plants we saw are below.
